Mr. Nobody Against Putin

A 2025 documentary directed by David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin, from a screenplay by Borenstein. Its subject is the way state propaganda enters an ordinary school and becomes part of its routine: lessons, assemblies, holidays and conversations with children in the Ural town of Karabash. It was filmed from within: Pavel Talankin worked at that school, and filming its events was part of his job, so for several years he kept a video chronicle as a member of staff rather than as a visiting documentary maker. Hence the unusual co-authorship: one of the two directors holds the camera and takes part in what he films, standing inside the image and not only behind it. The accumulated footage was carried out of the country, and the editing and dramatic assembly were done abroad together with the Danish documentary maker David Borenstein. That arrangement shapes the film itself, where long chronicle observation meets the voice-over of one of the people who shot it. Karabash is a small industrial town, and the choice of place makes the story an ordinary one rather than a metropolitan one. The film was made jointly by Denmark, the Czech Republic and several other countries through Made in Copenhagen and Pink Productions, with the participation of the BBC and ZDF/Arte. Helle Faber, Radovan Sibrt, Alzbeta Karaskova and Petra Dobesova produced, and the score is by Michal Rataj and Jonas Struck. The first festival screening took place on 25 January 2025, with further premieres and releases on 6 November 2025, 26 March 2026 and 24 September 2026.